


the best present

by allsassnoclass (brightblackholes)



Series: Ficmas 2020 [5]
Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Presents, Lazy Mornings, M/M, Marriage Proposal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:40:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28417755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brightblackholes/pseuds/allsassnoclass
Summary: Luke has one particular present to give Ashton on Christmas.
Relationships: Luke Hemmings/Ashton Irwin
Series: Ficmas 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2071215
Comments: 3
Kudos: 21





	the best present

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HeyHeyArnold](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeyHeyArnold/gifts).



> Ficmas day five? Five. We are at day five people. whoo

On Christmas, Luke wakes before Ashton. Typically Ashton is out of bed before he is, preparing coffee and occasionally breakfast, so Luke savors these quiet moments with both of them comfortable here together, Ashton peacefully still. The air around them is cold, but under the covers it’s warm, body heat trapped in a cocoon made from the comforter. Luke shifts, sliding closer to Ashton so they’re pressed together again after separating during the night, and sighs contentedly. His pajama pants twist uncomfortably, but he manages to put things to rights without elbowing Ashton awake or having to ruin their warm little bubble.

Luke lets Ashton’s steady breathing lull him back to sleep, easily slipping into unconsciousness again. When he wakes for the second time, Ashton is shifting, preparing to leave. With Ashton, once he wakes up he can’t drift back off. It’s why Luke is more often than not the last one in bed in the morning, but today he’s determined to get a few minutes enjoying the morning together in the bedroom.

“Hey,” Ashton chuckles softly when Luke wraps an arm around him to keep him in place, burying his face against his shoulder. “Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas,” he mumbles.

“Are you going to let me go?” Ashton asks. “I can start coffee and cinnamon rolls, then we can do presents.”

Luke shakes his head.

“You want to stay here all day?”

Luke nods.

Ashton shifts until they’re facing each other. Luke squints at him.

He hates waking up in the morning. Once he’s up and moving it’s fine, but the transition from sleep to functional human being is one he makes while kicking and screaming. It’s easier when Ashton is there to drag him along.

Ashton leans forward and kisses his nose. Luke scrunches it, and Ashton relents to give him a quick kiss on the lips instead. Luke presses forward, extending the moment as long as he can until Ashton leans back.

“Are you going to make me drag you out of bed, or can you find the way to the living room by yourself?” he asks. Luke pouts, but in the end the promise of Christmas morning with Ashton has him relenting. Ashton stops in the bathroom and Luke commandeers the comforter, draping it over his shoulders like a cape and padding to the kitchen. Petunia appears, trotting at his heels, and he ensures her food and water is full before turning on the coffee. When Ashton joins him, he breaks open a can of premade cinnamon rolls and puts them on a baking sheet, ready to be popped in the oven.

“You look cozy,” Ashton says. Luke opens his blanket-cape enough to let him in, wrapping himself around Ashton like a koala with very little intention of letting him go. It makes moving to the living room more difficult, so they stand in the kitchen until Luke feels marginally more awake.

There are two stockings on the mantle, each filled with candy and knicknacks. Petunia has her own stocking with rawhide bones and toys sitting on her favorite chair, and Luke rips through the packaging on a bone and gives it to her, content to have her dooling happily all over the couch while he and Ashton sort through their own gifts. All of Ashton’s presents are either precisely wrapped and adorned with a bow or simple newspaper taped together with masking tape. He oscillates wildly between needing things to look good and not caring about presentation, whereas Luke at least made an effort with all of his wrapping, although his corners aren’t as crisp and there are a few times where he started using a sheet that was too small and had to tape overlapping panels.

There’s one gift at the back of the tree that Luke has been trying not to fixate on. Ashton has set himself up closest to the tree, appointing himself as the person handing out the presents, and Luke’s thankful that he hasn’t reached for it yet, distracted by everything closer within reach. Between snacking on the cinnamon rolls and drinking coffee they open kitchen supplies, clothing items, books, vinyl records, personalized drumsticks, guitar picks, necklaces, and a weird ceramic rooster that Ashton hadn’t been able to stop laughing at when they were exploring an antique shop together.

He threatens to put it in their bedroom. Luke suggests they find a way to sneak it into Calum and Michael’s house instead, and Ashton’s eyes light up.

Eventually, however, there are no other presents left. Ashton reaches for the box, causing Luke’s stomach to clench violently.

“It’s light,” Ashton says when he picks it up. It’s big, something that Petunia could easily fit in with room to spare, and the wrapping on the outside is red with mistletoe boughs on it. Luke had been careful with this one, ensuring crisp folds and not overusing the tape. Ashton comments on it as he opens, but once the cardboard has been revealed and he sees the contents inside, he frowns.

“It’s another box,” he says, taking it out, silver wrapping paper glinting in the light. Luke hums, because obviously he knows what’s in the present, and Ashton narrows his eyes.

“Are there going to be more boxes?” he asks.

“Why don’t you open this one and find out?”

Ashton surveys him for a moment longer. Luke hopes he doesn’t appear as nervous as he really is, guts swirling in a hurricane of anxiety and anticipation.

This box houses another one the size of a shoe box and wrapped in green stripes. Luke outsourced to Michael and Calum for more wrapping paper, wanting each layer to be different.

“Luke, how many fucking boxes are there?” Ashton asks.

“Um,” he says.

The next box has snowmen on it. The next, little Christmas trees. Ashton frowns deeper with each one, frustration apparent in how aggressively he tears at the paper.

“Luke,” Ashton says, holding that box up. “If there is another box in here, I’m breaking up with you.”

Luke bites his lip.

The last box has no wrapping, only a black velvet frame. Luke watches him freeze, then take it gingerly in his hands. Luke clears his throat.

“I, uh, don’t want you to break up with me?”

“Okay,” Ashton says slowly. “I won’t.”

“Can you give it to me?”

Luke untangles his upper body from the comforter, taking the offered box. Ashton stares at him, waiting for an explanation, no doubt, but Luke finds that all of his words have dried up.

“I had a speech,” he says.

“I’m sure it’s good,” Ashton says.

“I can’t remember it.” 

“Okay,” Ashton says.

“But I love you. That was the most important piece,” Luke says.

“I love you, too.” Ashton smiles at him, something comfortable and familiar. It’s a small form of encouragement that he’s been giving him since they met, a smile boosting him before each performance, interview, and every difficult task in between. He’s a safety net that Luke can always fall back on.

“I want to see you smile like that for the rest of our lives,” Luke says. “I want to spend my life with you. I want to marry you.”

He opens the box, gold ring standing stark against the black it’s resting in. He flips it around so Ashton can see.

“Will you marry me?” he asks.

“Luke,” Ashton says, shuffling forward until he’s kneeling right in front of him, hands resting on his thighs. “Baby, of course I’ll marry you. I love you more than anything else in the world.”

“Even when I wrap the ring inside lots of other boxes and make you open all of them?”

Ashton laughs.

“Yeah, even then. _Especially_ then if it ends with us engaged.”

Luke leans forward and kisses him. Ashton’s hands come up to frame his face, cradling him gently until they’re both smiling too much to continue.

“I think you owe me a ring,” he whispers when they part.

Luke fumbles with the box, finally getting the ring out and taking Ashton’s hand. It fits perfectly, a simple thing that will blend in with any other rings he wears but that carries more meaning. Ashton admires it, then turns his gaze back to Luke.

“Thank you,” he says. “This is the best gift I’ve ever gotten.”

“Oh, that was part of my speech!” Luke says. “I was going to say that being with you is a never-ending present that I’m grateful to unwrap every day.”

“Will you tell me the rest of the speech if you remember?” Ashton asks.

“Of course,” Luke says. “I have it written down in one of my journals.”

He starts to get up, but this time Ashton is the one to stop him from rising, blocking his path from the couch.

“It can wait,” Ashton says. “Right now I just want to enjoy the moment. Let me into your blanket fort?”

Luke untangles his legs from the comforter, letting Ashton into his bubble once again. Ashton fits himself against Luke with practiced ease, both of them perfectly suited to each other.

“Luke Hemmings, you are a gift to the world,” Ashton says. “Thank you for choosing me to spend the rest of your life with.”

“There’s no one else I would want.”

Ashton’s ring is cold when he cups Luke's jaw, bringing their lips together again. Ashton may be the one who got the ring, but Luke thinks he got the best present this year.

**Author's Note:**

> heck yeah proposals
> 
> Thank you for reading! Comments and kudos are always appreciated.
> 
> You can find me on tumblr at [allsassnoclass!](http://allsassnoclass.tumblr.com)


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